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One report claimed AI would “drive a staggering $263 billion in global online holiday sales.”
Photo Credit: iStock
A recent CNBC article claimed that holiday shoppers are turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to navigate gift-giving, but the report was heavy on speculation and light on evidence.
Throughout 2025, every story in the news cycle seemed to have an AI angle, and holiday shopping was no exception.
The process of selecting gifts was likened to a “chore” by Amrita Bhasin, identified by CNBC as a “24-year-old retail tech CEO.” According to Bhasin, using AI tools to shop for her friends and family “changed the game” and, she asserted, made her likelier to spend more.
CNBC cited a Salesforce report from “last month,” one that purportedly projected AI would “drive a staggering $263 billion in global online holiday sales,” published in September.
Unsurprisingly, AI-connected tech pundits who talked to CNBC expressed certainty that chatbot-assisted shopping was the future.
But another startup founder, Diana Tan, described a slightly more relatable experience with the so-called AI shopping trend. After deciding to create a capsule wardrobe, she gave ChatGPT “a slew of information” about her measurements, preferences, and budget.
Tan was underwhelmed when it repeatedly suggested the same few turtlenecks, like a “demented grandmother.”
“I think it takes the joy out of shopping,” Tan admitted.
Something CNBC curiously didn’t mention was the nature of Bhasin’s work.
According to a B2B directory, she founded “a venture-backed, AI-powered company that discreetly monetizes surplus and unsold inventory for retailers, brands, distributors, and fulfillment centers.”
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Moreover, the glowing piece appeared within days of a groundbreaking report about “AI shopping” that was decidedly less positive.
On Dec. 9, a joint investigation by More Perfect Union, Consumer Reports, and Groundwork Collaborative alleged that Instacart users were “unknowingly part of widespread AI-enabled experiments” in which customers were charged differently for the same items.
Incidentally, CNBC and Consumer Reports both mentioned Walmart and Amazon as retailers engaging in dynamic pricing.
The report about a very AI Christmas season also coincided with widespread concerns that an “AI bubble” could destabilize the economy, a worry Google’s CEO recently acknowledged was not unfounded.
Economic devastation isn’t the only public risk posed by AI. As tools like ChatGPT became more widely used, data centers to power them followed, raising credible environmental concerns.
Data centers are resource-hungry, and their energy use has driven up electric bills.
These facilities also consume vast amounts of water, and early reports of a cluster of rare cancers and miscarriages emerged near an Amazon data center in Oregon in late November.
While the prospect of AI driving excess consumption was bleak, Tan’s experience cast doubt on the supposed fad.
“After a while, I’m like, well, you know, it’s actually more fun and more interesting for me to just go to Nordstrom Rack, or, like, anywhere else, and just look for what I actually want,” she said.
Shoppers bucking the trend can make their holidays more sustainable by supporting circular brands and finding one-of-a-kind vintage gifts through secondhand shopping.
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